


Wolf

by HookbackKarkat



Series: You and I [4]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Dirk and Hal are twins, Dirk isn't in this one, Hal is human, M/M, Self exhaustion, forced exhaustion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 12:42:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9385661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HookbackKarkat/pseuds/HookbackKarkat
Summary: Running. Burning. Where am I? Where am I going?I don't know.[Finally, something after Shadow. Direct sequel.]





	

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the pause...

I don't know where I am.  
The moment I realize that, I'm forced to stop dead in my tracks, and survey my surroundings. I've taken so many flightful twists and turns, I don't know which direction is what anymore. If I had a shred of thought to change my mind, it's useless now. It seems darker than when I left. I check my phone, no signal. How long have I been running? It's almost six-thirty. When did we leave school? I don't recall this previously useless information. It doesn't matter much anyway. Why do I keep acting as if I want to know how to get home, 'just in case?' I can't go back.  
As I begin to walk again, I instinctively reach for my backpack straps but they're not there. Suddenly, I feel naked and unprepared without them. Should I have thought this through more? Well, too bad. It's already been put into motion and I'm the only one who cares. I am alone, and from now on I always will be. This thought burns through my veins like fire, fueling my pace until I am running again, but I can feel it eroding away the flesh against my bones. I've flashstepped before, plenty of times, but this feels different. Not just as if the world is blurring around me but my whole body is reduced to a streak of light, too fast for the eye to follow properly. Burning inside, I'm burning just like the creature who took an interest in me that night. It found its way inside me when it bit me, and I realize now that I _am_ the creature. My scars burn as a sick sensation twists inside me, as if I've been pierced by a passing branch and attempted to wrench my caught entrails from its grasp.   
The creature is fierce, deadly. Am I? The fury boiling in my veins seemed not to be my own. But I know it is. The creature would never have let itself be extinguished so quickly, never become what I have. A mere ghost, insubstantial memory. It chose to live on through me and I have failed it.  
I can't stop running. Forest, city, hell, whatever surrounds me is dark and indistinguishable from anything else, and being passed too fast to see. Fireflies erupt in my vision and I hear the howling of wolves. The creature, ever merciful, seems to have stopped eating away at my flesh. I feel nothing. As the howling grows louder, blocking out all sound, and the fireflies grow into magnificent white dragons writhing across my vision, I open my mouth to join them. My throat is raw, as if it's consumed itself, but I hear nothing. The wolves continue to howl in my ears as if they're right beside me, and my own voice is extinguished.   
I feel nothing.


End file.
